8 ms·

Maybe I'm a cynic but it strains credulity that the miracle cure is also a laundry list of fad health trends from the the last decade. Gluten free, intermittent

Maybe I'm a cynic but it strains credulity that the miracle cure is also a laundry list of fad health trends from the the last decade. Gluten free, intermittent fasting, yoga, melatonin, probiotics, etc etc

catlikesshrimp 5y ago
Gluten free is not snake oil.... if you have a Immune Celiac disease. Melatonin helps with sleep disorders... for people with sleep disorders. There is a synthetic analog called Ramelteon. Intermitent fasting has curious effects on insulin resistance, but not clinically relevant. Probiotics reduce incidence and severity of traveler's diarrhea... for travelers. It has been comercially available for a while. Like Ivermectin, which is not snake oil, but is also being sold for the same purposes as snake oil.
- Earw0rm 5y ago
  Re intermittent fasting - "not clinically relevant" in that its effect on insulin in itself isn't relevant, or that insulin resistance itself doesn't have a clinically significant relationship to dementia? I'm not a faster, don't have a dog in this fight, just curious as have seen a few papers & articles in recent years that seem to suggest a relationship between T2D / metabolic syndrome and dementia, but these may have since been debunked?
varelse 5y ago
If what you're telling me is that eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercising can halt or reverse Alzheimer's it's not going to exactly shock me. The real fad is how amazingly stupid Americans are about their own health.
- easytiger 5y ago
  I come from a family with Alzheimer's running through it like clockwork. I have some uncles who tried to live the right lifestyle. It didn't help. If anything in my observations it made things worse. Though it's a meaningless sample size.
  - varelse 5y ago
    My own mom has it right now. It's a godawful disease but her choices are equally godawful and they are getting monotonically worse with her decline. Her brother got it too and died horribly. Her other brother became a health not late in life and did not succumb to dementia but rather died of natural causes around 90 a happy and content soul. So I guess in both instances here we are both anecdotal single data points. But I think we can agree this is a horrible disease.
    - easytiger 5y ago
      Absolutely. In the case of one uncle he was tea total, healthy diet, distance running, skiing up to his 70s when he got Alzheimer's. Declined in 2 years to the point where he couldn't be at home as he was too strong for his wife to handle. Covid proved the end of any attempt to cling on to his past as it was made illegal for family to visit him. He's gone completely now. But I suspect his physical fitness will see him last longer than he should. My mother going this way now too. Suspect it will be me one day. Certainly genetic factors involved.
- SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
  Given that Americans work more than most other countries it’s a wonder how they get enough sleep or time to cook healthy.
  - stavros 5y ago
    México, Costa Rica, Korea, and Greece would like a word, on both working harder and eating better: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-countries-where-people-work-the-longest-hours/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-countries-where-p...
    - nostromo 5y ago
      Mexico is more overweight than the US and tops your list of reported working hours.
      - stavros 5y ago
        That's very far from the truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_r... In fact, the only other country with a population of more than 200,000 people with a higher obesity rate than the US is Kuwait.
- atmartins 5y ago
  Ah yes, every single one of them. And none of the people in any other country.
  - nostrebored 5y ago
    American culture is staggeringly unhealthy. Denying this is impossible.
    - rootusrootus 5y ago
      Not sure we're alone. Take the UK, for example. 2/3 are either overweight or obese. Better than the US? Sure. But what a weak victory that is.
      - nostrebored 5y ago
        I'm definitely biased by living in the southern hemisphere for almost half a decade. The places I've lived are visibly healthier than the US. People have less chronic health problems, take fewer sick days, etc.
        rootusrootus 5y ago
        I imagine a lot of that depends on where in the US you go. I live in an area that is statistically similar to Europe. If your idea of the US is south and east, it will be considerably different.
        nostrebored 5y ago
        I've lived in major cities in the southeast and the west coast. The west coast of the US is still extremely unhealthy. Learning how unhealthy the culture I grew up in is has been a gradual process. Shock moving to the west coast, and then shock at each of the subsequent moves around other parts of the world.
    - ALittleLight 5y ago
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  Was that zing really necessary? I'm trying to start a new diet plan over here, c'mon. There's just way too much good food in California.
  - adolph 5y ago
    Every problem is a solution in disguise: start a good food diet plan—people will certainly buy that.
    - themodelplumber 5y ago
      lol. A tangent, but it so happens that my dad literally tried that because he hated CICO with a passion. An undiagnosed genetic condition took his life (this is a long time ago) before he could publish his book.
      - adolph 5y ago
        I'm sorry for your loss and for the loss of his effort (presuming you or another heir have not taken up the reins of his intellectual property). Another step to consider in lateral thinking about (personal diet -> diet book) is the marketing of such. Instead of allowing it on the marketplace, it could be sold by word of mouth in the manner of multilevel marketing. Many MLM systems act as giant siphons for unethical people. I wonder if a forking blockchain could act as method to promote honest transparency, where each level of organization becomes a fork.
  - varelse 5y ago
    I mentioned sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet and IMO they're all connected. Nowhere did I mention anything about weight. But since we're on the topic now, I disagree with BMI alone as the single indicator of health. Canada seems to be moving in that direction as well. I try to eat healthy myself, but restaurants borderline conspire against that because healthy dishes just don't sell as well as those California Cream Sauce Specials with limitless bread. https://www.verywellhealth.com/canada-guidelines-redefine-obesity-5074539 https://www.verywellhealth.com/canada-guidelines-redefine-ob...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- curation 5y ago
  Yes. I don't take all those supplements but I have performed most of the eating/sleeping/exercise rituals because it's normal to do that and not normal to not sleep 8 hours, overeat and not exercise. There are endless new markets to be created from telling people how to be healthy that is not: every day do the same healthy things forever. I think it is sad that this implies that we should wait until we have cognitive decline before we do anything.
- MrStonedOne 5y ago
  "Gluten free, intermittent fasting" are pseudoscience health trends and trying to strawman them as "eating healthy" is disingenuous.
smiley1437 5y ago
The linked paper is from 2014 - it might even be the source of some of those health trends
robwwilliams 5y ago
No you are not a cynic. But this regimen could be relabeled “good living”. Amazing number of words to get to the actual interventions. And stop smoking too.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
m0llusk 5y ago
It would be wrong to characterize this as a miracle cure, especially given the significant time and effort required to get any effect. It also makes a lot of sense that dementia would end up being like cancer and heart disease in terms of being complex, systemic, and fundamentally related to metabolic activity.
3520 5y ago
It's quite easy to label something as a fad rather than to attempt to parse the data that supports the interventions they prescribed to the patients in the study (of which there is plenty).
jasonhansel 5y ago
Just wait for another paper claiming that the ketogenic diet is what really works.
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  While you wait, how about a book from a neuroscientist? https://www.drperlmutter.com/books/grain-brain-by-david-perlmutter/ https://www.drperlmutter.com/books/grain-brain-by-david-perl...

catlikesshrimp 5y ago

Gluten free is not snake oil.... if you have a Immune Celiac disease. Melatonin helps with sleep disorders... for people with sleep disorders. There is a synthetic analog called Ramelteon. Intermitent fasting has curious effects on insulin resistance, but not clinically relevant. Probiotics reduce incidence and severity of traveler's diarrhea... for travelers. It has been comercially available for a while. Like Ivermectin, which is not snake oil, but is also being sold for the same purposes as snake oil.

Earw0rm 5y ago
Re intermittent fasting - "not clinically relevant" in that its effect on insulin in itself isn't relevant, or that insulin resistance itself doesn't have a clinically significant relationship to dementia? I'm not a faster, don't have a dog in this fight, just curious as have seen a few papers & articles in recent years that seem to suggest a relationship between T2D / metabolic syndrome and dementia, but these may have since been debunked?

varelse 5y ago

If what you're telling me is that eating healthy, getting enough sleep and exercising can halt or reverse Alzheimer's it's not going to exactly shock me. The real fad is how amazingly stupid Americans are about their own health.

easytiger 5y ago
I come from a family with Alzheimer's running through it like clockwork. I have some uncles who tried to live the right lifestyle. It didn't help. If anything in my observations it made things worse. Though it's a meaningless sample size.
- varelse 5y ago
  My own mom has it right now. It's a godawful disease but her choices are equally godawful and they are getting monotonically worse with her decline. Her brother got it too and died horribly. Her other brother became a health not late in life and did not succumb to dementia but rather died of natural causes around 90 a happy and content soul. So I guess in both instances here we are both anecdotal single data points. But I think we can agree this is a horrible disease.
  - easytiger 5y ago
    Absolutely. In the case of one uncle he was tea total, healthy diet, distance running, skiing up to his 70s when he got Alzheimer's. Declined in 2 years to the point where he couldn't be at home as he was too strong for his wife to handle. Covid proved the end of any attempt to cling on to his past as it was made illegal for family to visit him. He's gone completely now. But I suspect his physical fitness will see him last longer than he should. My mother going this way now too. Suspect it will be me one day. Certainly genetic factors involved.
SamoyedFurFluff 5y ago
Given that Americans work more than most other countries it’s a wonder how they get enough sleep or time to cook healthy.
- stavros 5y ago
  México, Costa Rica, Korea, and Greece would like a word, on both working harder and eating better: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-countries-where-people-work-the-longest-hours/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-countries-where-p...
  - nostromo 5y ago
    Mexico is more overweight than the US and tops your list of reported working hours.
    - stavros 5y ago
      That's very far from the truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_r... In fact, the only other country with a population of more than 200,000 people with a higher obesity rate than the US is Kuwait.
atmartins 5y ago
Ah yes, every single one of them. And none of the people in any other country.
- nostrebored 5y ago
  American culture is staggeringly unhealthy. Denying this is impossible.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    Not sure we're alone. Take the UK, for example. 2/3 are either overweight or obese. Better than the US? Sure. But what a weak victory that is.
    - nostrebored 5y ago
      I'm definitely biased by living in the southern hemisphere for almost half a decade. The places I've lived are visibly healthier than the US. People have less chronic health problems, take fewer sick days, etc.
      - rootusrootus 5y ago
        I imagine a lot of that depends on where in the US you go. I live in an area that is statistically similar to Europe. If your idea of the US is south and east, it will be considerably different.
        nostrebored 5y ago
        I've lived in major cities in the southeast and the west coast. The west coast of the US is still extremely unhealthy. Learning how unhealthy the culture I grew up in is has been a gradual process. Shock moving to the west coast, and then shock at each of the subsequent moves around other parts of the world.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
themodelplumber 5y ago
Was that zing really necessary? I'm trying to start a new diet plan over here, c'mon. There's just way too much good food in California.
- adolph 5y ago
  Every problem is a solution in disguise: start a good food diet plan—people will certainly buy that.
  - themodelplumber 5y ago
    lol. A tangent, but it so happens that my dad literally tried that because he hated CICO with a passion. An undiagnosed genetic condition took his life (this is a long time ago) before he could publish his book.
    - adolph 5y ago
      I'm sorry for your loss and for the loss of his effort (presuming you or another heir have not taken up the reins of his intellectual property). Another step to consider in lateral thinking about (personal diet -> diet book) is the marketing of such. Instead of allowing it on the marketplace, it could be sold by word of mouth in the manner of multilevel marketing. Many MLM systems act as giant siphons for unethical people. I wonder if a forking blockchain could act as method to promote honest transparency, where each level of organization becomes a fork.
- varelse 5y ago
  I mentioned sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet and IMO they're all connected. Nowhere did I mention anything about weight. But since we're on the topic now, I disagree with BMI alone as the single indicator of health. Canada seems to be moving in that direction as well. I try to eat healthy myself, but restaurants borderline conspire against that because healthy dishes just don't sell as well as those California Cream Sauce Specials with limitless bread. https://www.verywellhealth.com/canada-guidelines-redefine-obesity-5074539 https://www.verywellhealth.com/canada-guidelines-redefine-ob...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
curation 5y ago
Yes. I don't take all those supplements but I have performed most of the eating/sleeping/exercise rituals because it's normal to do that and not normal to not sleep 8 hours, overeat and not exercise. There are endless new markets to be created from telling people how to be healthy that is not: every day do the same healthy things forever. I think it is sad that this implies that we should wait until we have cognitive decline before we do anything.
MrStonedOne 5y ago
"Gluten free, intermittent fasting" are pseudoscience health trends and trying to strawman them as "eating healthy" is disingenuous.

smiley1437 5y ago

The linked paper is from 2014 - it might even be the source of some of those health trends

robwwilliams 5y ago

No you are not a cynic. But this regimen could be relabeled “good living”. Amazing number of words to get to the actual interventions. And stop smoking too.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

m0llusk 5y ago

It would be wrong to characterize this as a miracle cure, especially given the significant time and effort required to get any effect. It also makes a lot of sense that dementia would end up being like cancer and heart disease in terms of being complex, systemic, and fundamentally related to metabolic activity.

3520 5y ago

It's quite easy to label something as a fad rather than to attempt to parse the data that supports the interventions they prescribed to the patients in the study (of which there is plenty).

jasonhansel 5y ago

Just wait for another paper claiming that the ketogenic diet is what really works.

jodrellblank 5y ago
While you wait, how about a book from a neuroscientist? https://www.drperlmutter.com/books/grain-brain-by-david-perlmutter/ https://www.drperlmutter.com/books/grain-brain-by-david-perl...